Well, a clue might be found in one of Monique Rhodes' songs, Queen Of The World, which laments rampant consumerism.
Instead of chasing dollars, we might be better off concentrating on looking after one another, she urges.
That particularly applies to our children, Rhodes says via telephone from Auckland.
Having returned from her base in southwest France, she has been living in the big smoke for much of the year, organising the varied list of performers who sing on So This Is Christmas, of which 25% of proceeds will go to the domestic violence charity Shine (Safer Homes In New Zealand Everyday [sic]) .
Dunedin band The Chills, who perform I Saw Three Ships , feature alongside Elemeno P (We Wish You A Merry Christmas), Hollie Smith (O Holy Night), The Feelers (Jingle Bells), Dragon and Sharon O'Neill (Noel), Patea Maori Club (Silent Night) and The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra (Feliz Navidad), among others.
Not to be excluded from her own project, Rhodes appears with The Jordan Luck Band on closing track Happy Christmas (War Is Over).
Also working with Rhodes on the album project was Mike Chunn, chief executive of the Play It Strange Trust, established in 2003 to encourage young New Zealanders to develop their songwriting and performance skills.
Play it Strange organised a national songwriting competition that attracted entries from 450 schools, resulting in Danielle Rana recording her song, Sunshine, with rugby players Rodney So'oialo and Neemia Tialata; the other winner, Massad, recorded Smile with Outrageous Fortune actor Antonia Prebble.
It's not the first time Rhodes has released such an album.
In early 2009, while touring with Shona Laing and being confronted with "endless stories about child abuse in New Zealand", she began organising Merry Christmas Baby.
A charity compilation (supporting the Royal Plunket Society of New Zealand) of mostly original Christmas songs written by Kiwi artists, it has gone platinum with more than 15,000 copies sold.
"When you're away you probably have more of an idyllic view of a place so coming back and seeing this problem, the statistics that we had the third-highest rate of child murder in the OECD ... I thought, 'well, if I could be part of the solution in the country I call home, that would be great'," Rhodes says.
"Hopefully, the fact an artist has come home to help point out this issue might make a few people think about what they could do in their communities."
The 38-year-old describes her latest project, which involved convincing various artists of its merits, creating a business plan and organising recording, as a "monster".
Still, she is happy with the results.
"The idea was to create an album of Christmas songs that I would listen to.
"I don't like Christmas music at all, but I thought if I could make a Christmas album where the music was cool and beautiful - no synthesisers, none of that usual genre.
"I want people to hear it and go 'wow, this is our Christmas album'.
"So, you have The Feelers doing a country version of Jingle Bells. Initially, I thought 'How are they going to pull this off?' But it's brilliant.
"Then Hollie Smith and this group of people including Annie Crummer do an a cappella version of Holy Night and Elemeno P have done a punk rock version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, which makes me laugh every time I hear it.
"The Chills, too, have done a stunning track, very much in their style," Rhodes says, adding the inclusion of the Martin Phillipps-led band was for reasons both musical and sentimental.
"I really wanted them because I'm from Dunedin."
Rhodes went to the former Moreau College, then Kavanagh College before heading to Auckland in the mid-'90s and on to Sydney where, with a "seemingly natural flair for business", she ended up working for a jet-boat company on Sydney Harbour, taking it from a start-up business to an Australian tourism award-winner in five years.
"That gave me a good grounding in business, just the way you could do things differently to stand out from other products.
"My music is my business and I approach it in that way," she says.
"All of the successes that I have enjoyed overseas have come from being open to new opportunities and networking well with people," Rhodes says.
"I think one of the biggest problems for musicians from a small country like New Zealand is that 30 or 40 years ago, you might have been 'discovered'.
"Now, that's just not a reality.
"If you can understand that your music is a business then you have a big advantage over people who are thinking someone will come along and discover them."
Having spent several years juggling her day job with gigs in Sydney, the musician who took up violin at the age of 5 (she now plays piano and guitar) recorded her debut album, Awakening, "about four years ago" (it was released in New Zealand in 2008).
She has also supported rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry on two European tours, and written and recorded with members of Peter Gabriel's band in London.
"Probably the highlight for me in recent years has been performing for the Dalai Lama," Rhodes, a Buddhist, says.
"The French president's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was there, as was author John Le Carre and actress Juliette Binoche."
Rhodes plans to return to France in the New Year, when she'll firm up plans to record her sophomore album.
In the meantime, however, she hopes to satisfy her "gypsy traveller" urges.
"I'm thinking of having a bit of a break.
"I have a great aunt who is a Catholic nun in Colombia. I want to hang out with her and see what she is doing there," Rhodes says.
BELLS AND WHISTLES
As far as Yuletide-themed albums go, So This Is Christmas shakes off some - but not all - of the cringe factor associated with such releases.
This is largely thanks to the efforts of Hollie Smith and The All Stars' rapturous, soul-filled version of O' Holy Night, The Wellington Ukulele Orchestra's light-hearted twist to Feliz Navidad (though it should be noted this was initially released on an EP two years ago and was thus not specifically recorded for this project) and The Chills' gentle yet cluttered reworking of I Saw Three Ships.
As for The Feelers, well, it's the first (and hopefully last) time Jingle Bells has been surrounded by such angst. - Shane Gilchrist
THE ALBUM
> So This Is Christmas is released on Monday.
> For more information on the charity Safer Homes In New Zealand Everyday (Shine), visit: www.2shine.org.nz
